St. Landry democrat., 1887-08-13


and fever; don't leave for them notes
that have been outlawed, and second
mortgages on property that will not pay
the first" "Set thy house in order"
That is, fix up things, so your going out
of this world may make as little conster-
nation as possible. See the lean cattle
devouring the fat cattle, and in the time
of plenty prepare for the time of want.
The difficulty is, when men think of their
death they are afraid to think of it only
in connection with their spiritual well
fare and not of the devastation in the
household which will come because of
their emigration from it. 1t is meanly
selfish for you to be so absorbed in the
Heaven to which you are going that you
forget what is to become of your wife
and children after you are dead. You
can go out of this world without leav-
ing a dollar, and yet die happy
if you could not provide for
them; you can trust them in the hands
of the God who owns all the harvests,
and the herds, and the tlocks; but if you
could pay the premiums on policy and
neglect them, it is mean thing for you
to 60 up to Heaven while they go into
the poor-house. You, at death, move
into mansion, river front, and they move
into two rooms on the fourth story OF
tenement-house in back street When
they are out at the elbows and knees the
thought of your splendid robe in Heaven
will not keep them warm. The minister
may preach a splendid sermon over your
remains, and the quartet may sing like
four angels in the organ loft, but your
death will be swindle You had the
means to provide for the comfort
of your household when you left
it, and you wickedly neglected it.
60" says some one, Il have more faith
than you; believe when go out of this
world, the Lord will provide for them"
Go to Blackwelrs Island, go through all
the poor houses of the country, and | will
show you how often God provides for
the neglected children of neglectful par
ents. That is. He provides for them
through public charity. AS for myself,
I would rather have Ne Lord provide for
my family in private home, and through
my own industry, and paternal, and con-
jugal faithfulness. But says some man:
II mean in the next ten or twenty years
to make great fortune, and so shall
leave my family, when I go out of this
world, very comfortable" How do you
know you are going to live ten or twenty
years? If we could look up the highway
of the future, we would see it crossed by
pneumonias, and pleurisies, and con-
sumptions, and colliding rail trains.
and runaway horses, and breaking
bridges, and funeral professions.
Are you so certain you are going to live
ten or twenty years you can warrant
your household any comfort after you go
away from them? Beside that, the vast
majority of men die poor ! Two-only two
out of hundred succeed in business.
Are you very certein you are going to be
one of the two? Rich one day, poor the
next. A man in New York got two mil
lions of dollars, and the money turned his
brain, and he died in the lunatic asylum.
All his property was left with the bust
ness firm, and they swamped it; and
then the family of the insane man were
left without dollar. In eighteen months
the prosperity the insanity, the. in
solvency, and the complete domestic ruin.
Beside that, there are men who die SOL
vent who are insolvent before they get
under the ground, or before their estate is
settled up. How soon the auctioneer's
mallet can knock the life out of an es-
tate! A man thinks the property is worth
fifteen thousand dollars; under forced
sale it brings seven thousand dollars.
The business man takes advantage of
the crisis and he compels the widow of
his deceased partner to sell out to him at
ruinous price, or lose all. The stock
was supposed to be very valuable, but it
ecutor tries to sell it he is laughed out of
W. irtv &c
dered by the surrogate to wind up the
whole affair. The estate was supposed
at the mans death to be worth sixty
thousand dollars; but after the in
debtedness had been met, and the
bills of the doctor, and the undertaken,
and the tombstone-cutter have been paid,
there is nothing left. That means the
children are to come home from school
and go to work. That means the COM
plete hardship of the wife, turned out
with nothing but needle to fight the
great battle of the world. Tear down
the lambrequins, close the piano, rip up
the Administer, sell out the wardrobe,
and let the mother take child in each
hand and trudge out into the desert of
the world A life insurance would have
hindered all that.
But, says some one: II am a man of
small means, and I can't afford to pay
the premium" That is sometimes law
full and genuine excuse, and there is no
answer to it; but in nine cases out of
ten when a man says that, he smokes up
in cigars, and drinks down in wine, and
expends in luxuries enough money to
have paid the premium on a life insur-
ance policy which would have kept his
family from beggary when he is dead. A
man ought to put himself down on the
strictest economy until he can meet this
Christian necessity. You have no right
to the luxuries OF life until you have
made such provision. l admire what
was said by Rev. DR.. Guthrie,
the great Scottish preacher. A few
years before his death he stood in a
public meeting and declared: when I
came to Edinburgh the people some
times laughed at my blue stockings and
at my cotton umbrella, and they said |
looked like a common plowman, and
they derided me because | lived in a
house for which paid thirtytve pounds
rent year and oftentimes I walked when
would have been very glad to have a
cab; but, gentlemen, did all that be-
cause l wanted to pay the premium on
life insurance that would keep my
family comfortable if I should die"
That 1 take to be the right expression of
an honest intallipent Christian man.